On some systems, Ubuntu and other Linux systems will install as if they they had always been right…
Read more Read more

If you're running Linux on a laptop or pre-built computer (like a Dell), you can probably find all the information you need at Ubuntu's Community Documentation, but even then you may not know exactly which model of "MacBook Pro" or "Acer Aspire One" your computer falls into. If you need any type of advanced information about your computer—whether it's the model of your laptop or the manufacturer of your laptop's Wi-Fi card—the dmidecode command will give you all the info you need.

Typing sudo dmidecode into a terminal will give you a giant list of information about your machine that you can browse through, or you can use the -s flag and a keyword to get a specific piece of information. For example, MacBook users looking to know exactly which generation MacBook they have could type:

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

Which will output something like MacBookPro5,3, which is the 5th generation MacBook Pro released in June 2009. For a full list of the keywords you can use (or other ways you can use dmidecode), type man dmidecode into the Terminal or check out its manpage on the web.

Many of you Linux enthusiasts already know about this, but beginners should definitely take note of this command, because as you begin to fine-tune your hardware compatibility, you'll probably need some of this information. Hit the link to read more, and if you Linux veterans have any other advice for Linux newbies trying to set up their hardware, share it with us in the comments below.